25 awesome app design ideas to inspire you

With all the different types of apps out on the market, it can be hard to know which visual direction to go in when designing a new app. To provide you with some great app design ideas and to help you develop a clear vision of the design style that is right for you, we’ve collected some inspirational app designs in several categories.

These examples should also give you an understanding of which elements to include in your current design and get you jazzed to start designing your next app. Let’s dive in!

App design for social media brands
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Social media has changed the way people in the world connect, so it’s no surprise to see new social media apps popping up on a regular basis. While we’re all familiar with the friendly and accessible looks of Facebook and Instagram, there are actually many ways to design a social media app.

Note how the design for Conclave by Si Thu A brings back a blog-like look but in a package which lets users create blogs together. Or take the Storygram app design by Jean Alexandru above, which uses sans serif fonts and skeuomorphic shadows representing the pages of a book—quite unlike the flat and modern trends of today. If you are looking to create a social media app, use these examples as a starting point for how you can break the mold.

Luxury app design

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Apps for high-end luxury brands need to make their users feel exclusive and special. When we think luxury we think about timeless design, black and gold colors, classical san serif fonts and silky backdrops. All of these elements can be seen in the app designs above and the look perfectly matches the luxury brands and products they represent.

Take a look at how clean and minimalistic the user interfaces are, which adds to the exclusive feel—plus, luxury app users are ready to spend the big bucks, so it would be foolish not to have a clear path to the checkout. If you are looking to create a luxury app, think about which of the elements above would translate well to your design.

App design for health, exercise and training
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Apps that help promote health and fitness are all the rage right now, so your design needs to reflect that healthy, motivational vibe. A good place to start when designing a health, exercise or training app is to gather inspiration on how to create progress bars, meters, pie charts and statistical representation—these apps are all about tracking and charting progress, so you want your graphics to be on point.

Additionally, the use of bright and fun colors can be encouraging to users (who may be working their way out of a dark place). We especially like the app design for kegel exercises because it has simple and colorful progress bars along with big numbers which are easy to read. Looking to create a fitness or health app? Look towards the designs above for inspiration.

Finance and business management app design
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Similar to exercise apps, finance apps also have an inherent set of graphics that are supposed to help users measure and track development and progress. Finance apps however often focus more on XY-graphs and calendars—time is money after all. In the examples above we see several ways of using these elements to represent financial data.

Note how the data representations have a sharp and modern feel while maintaining legibility and ease of comprehension. Bright pops of color add youthfulness and emphasis to what’s important. If that’s what you’re trying to accomplish in your app, don’t hesitate to follow suit!

Design for gaming apps
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Who doesn’t love gaming apps? They feature brightly colored eye candy, cute characters and fun shapes which bounce around to keep you perfectly distracted while in a waiting room or on the subway! If you are looking to capture your users’ attention with your next gaming app, let the apps above inspire you.

Conclusion
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Now that you’ve looked over some great examples from some of the major app categories on the market, you should have a better idea of where you fit in and which visual direction you’d like to go in. If you feel unsure and need more inspiration, go ahead and browse the portfolios of our best app designers!